The subject invention relates to kneeling and tumbling automotive seat assemblies.
Conventional automotive seat assemblies include a seat cushion and a seat back mounted to a seat riser. The seat riser typically includes a pair of front and rear seat supports mounted to a vehicle floor. Many of today""s vehicles, such as vans, mini-vans and sport utility vehicles, have a second and/or third row seat which may be manipulated to provide additional storage space within the vehicle. There have been a number of different designs for reducing the amount of space that a seat occupies within the vehicle.
Some seat assemblies have latches on both of the seat supports such that the seat may be completely removed from the vehicle. Other seat assemblies have latches on the rear seat support such that the seat can xe2x80x9ctumblexe2x80x9d forward about the front seat support. An example of one such tumbling seat assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,368. Yet another design is to have the seat assembly xe2x80x9ckneelxe2x80x9d against the floor of the vehicle. An example of a kneeling seat assembly is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,706. None of the prior art seat assemblies, however, are capable of combining the advantages of a tumbling seat with a kneeling seat.
There remains a need for an automotive seat assembly which is capable of either tumbling forward and/or kneeling downward to provide additional cargo space within the vehicle.
The disadvantages of the prior art may be overcome by providing a seat assembly which may be either tumbled forward and/or kneeled downward to create additional cargo spaced within a vehicle.
It is also desirable to provide a seat assembly which may be tumbled forward from the kneeled position.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an automotive seat assembly comprising a seat cushion assembly having forward and rearward ends. A seat back assembly is pivotally mounted to the seat cushion assembly. A pair of rear seat supports are pivotally mounted to the rearward end of the seat cushion assembly for supporting a rear portion of the seat assembly. A pair of front seat supports are mounted to the forward end of the seat cushion assembly for supporting a front portion of the seat assembly. A link interconnects each of the front seat supports to a corresponding rear seat support for providing relative concurrent movement of the front and rear seat supports between a seating position with the front and rear seat supports extending downwardly from the seat cushion assembly for supporting a seat occupant above a vehicle floor and a tumbled position with the seat cushion assembly pivoting upward about the front seat supports and the rear seat supports folding against the seat cushion assembly. The seat assembly is characterized by each of the front seat supports being pivotally mounted to the seat cushion assembly for movement between the seating position with the front and rear seat supports extending downwardly from the seat cushion assembly and a kneeled position with the front and rear seat supports collapsed against the seat cushion assembly and the vehicle floor.